“Bones in a grave,
Cover them as they will with choking earth,
May shout the truth to men who put them there,
More than all orators.”

— Edwin Arlington Robinson

Monday 9:07 am

It sounds like Russian klezmer music and it’s coming from two small speakers that dangle from around his thick neck. The speakers are connected by wires to the device in his his large hand. From there the wires snake into the small backpack he’s wearing. He ambles with an air of contentment from one end of the bus shelter to the other and then outside again; a slow clockwise circle. He’s absolutely gigantic, towering over the rush hour foot traffic, his big head bobbing in self-satisfied happiness to the music. Pedestrians scurry around him, as if he is a hulking rock in a rushing river of people. He seems acutely aware of the looks of astonishment, the furtive glances of the passerby at this giant music-playing man. He smiles largely as a woman, hearing his alien music, eyes him with undisguised confusion. His eyes seem to say, yes, yes, this is my music and it’s damn wonderful, isn’t it? And I can’t help but smile at this man, calmly shattering social conventions with effortless nonchalance.

Tulipomania

“This gentleman, an amateur botanist, happened to see a tulip-root lying in the conservatory of a wealthy Dutchman. Being ignorant of its quality, he took out his penknife, and peeled off its coats, with the view of making experiments upon it. When it was by this means reduced to half its original size, he cut it into two equal sections, making all the time many learned remarks on the singular appearances of the unknown bulb. Suddenly the owner pounced upon him, and, with fury in his eyes, asked him if he knew what he had been doing? “Peeling a most extraordinary onion,” replied the philosopher. “Hundert tausend duyvel!,” said the Dutchman; “it’s an Admiral Van der Eyck.” “Thank you,” replied the traveller, taking out his note-book to make a memorandum of the same; “are these admirals common in your country?” “Death and the devil,” said the Dutchman, seizing the astonished man of science by the collar; “come before the syndic, and you shall see.” In spite of his remonstrances, the traveller was led through the streets, followed by a mob of persons. When brought into the presence of the magistrate, he learned, to his consternation, that the root upon which he had been experimentalising was worth four thousand florins (According to the International Institute of Social History, one florin had the purchasing power of €10.28 in 2002) and, notwithstanding all he could urge in extenuation, he was lodged in prison until he found securities for the payment of this sum.”

Mackay, Charles (1841), Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, London: Richard Bentley

I briefly worked for a company that made bullet-proof glass. Actually, they installed this high-end plastic sheeting over windows that made them bullet-proof. It was pretty cool, you could fire a shotgun or throw a Molotov cocktail at the glass and, although the glass would crack, the plastic would hold it together.

My co-worker told me that he installed some of this sheeting at a woman’s home somewhere in the States. The walls of her house were covered in newspaper clippings and scrawled verses from the Bible. While he was installing the sheeting on her windows, she walked up to him and asked in dead seriousness, “Will this protect against the locusts?”

“Protect against the what?”

“The locusts.”

“The locusts?”

“Yes, the locusts of Revelations with the scorpion tails. Will these windows hold up against them?”

“… uuuh, yes?”

“You don’t sound certain. Do you know the locusts I speak of?”

“… yes … yes I do. The, uh, windows will be protected against the, um, locusts.”

“Good.”

Hey Bruno Mars, grenades aside, in what possible scenario are you going to walk in front of a train for someone you love? I mean, even if you had to save the person you love from some kind of super-villain, you'd probably run in front of the train. And if the person you love actually asked you to walk in front of the train to prove your love, they're not the one for you in the first place.

I guess it sounds more extreme than promising something like "I'd wait for five hours at the doctor's office with you." or "I'd follow you into twenty-five different shoe stores for an entire day" or "I'd spend an awkward afternoon at a baby shower for you."

It's probably better to say you would do something for a circumstance that would never arise anyways.

Things I've Recently Seen on the Internets:


•A girl whose favourite Bob Marley song was by Bunny Wailer.
•Advice on balding with dignity. Conclusion: the comb-over is a no go.
•The definition of the word "irony." I'm still confused (it's Alanis' fault). What, for example was Dostoevsky referring to when he talked about an ironic smile? I want to see a picture of an ironic smile.
•A quote attributed to Bob Marley that was in American Standard English.
•Some soccer cleats.
•An article about minority leadership. As in a minority government’s leader, not leaders who are minorities.
•A picture of Edgar Davids protecting a fan from the police.
•The website of the Radical Marijuana Party of Canada. We (I was with a friend) tried to find their platform, but somehow we just found a step by step guide to building a website. Conclusion: they’re not ready to govern.
•The platform of the Christian Heritage Party of Canada. They’re flirting with votes from the far right now by misrepresenting Islam and calling for a moratorium on all immigration from countries with Sharia law. Fortunately, they’ll never get a seat.
•Highlights from the Barca Real Madrid match.
•That 1-year-old Dutch kid who was signed to VVV-Venlo. This kid has skills, for real.
•News about the royal wedding. Billions of people were watching? Why? I don’t get it.
•Top news in Ottawa: it was really windy yesterday.
•A recipe for marble cheesecake.
•The address of a CRC church in Ottawa for when my grandmother visits.
•My fantasy soccer team scores. I do better when I forget to change my picks.
•My turf soccer team's standings. We were in first place for one week. We’re probably in second now again.

I had a royal wedding back in 2005 and nobody made a big fuss like this.

Someone in my workplace has a cellphone that quacks. This wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for her regularly not answering her phone.

Starstruck couple - they literally stop and wait for the blinking hand to become solid. Then, entirely wrapped up in eachother, they proceed to cross the street, completely oblivious to the traffic that is too polite to honk at them.

I just watched "the Searchers" and was thoroughly unimpressed. The story wasn't interesting, and the First Nations were portrayed as half-witted terrorist goombahs whose savagery infected white captives like some kind of schizoid virus. Most of all, John Wayne can't act worth shit. Did he have some kind of speech impediment that made him speak like a half-wit?

What a waste of time.

"I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves."

~ John Wayne, telling off the Indians for their selfishness.

My Favourite Commercial

As long time boerishbwoy readers may know, I am a big fan of watching commercials. I wait impatiently through the mundane adventures of Jack Bauer so that I can watch products flashed quickly and stylishly before my eyes in thirty second intervals. Commercials fill that void in my soul the way only sales pitches for cleaning products, life insurance, lottery cards, tampons, beer, khaki pants, and cars can.

So, it was with much happiness that I discovered this beauty of a commercial:
Toyota Highlander

Rarely has a commercial done so many things right. Annoying parents singing? Check. Gigantic SUV? Check. Superficial message? Check. Entitled brat? Check. The list goes on.

People need to know that instead of spending time with family, children need to be entertained by mindless cartoons in a cocoon that protects them from anything that might build their character. We do not need any more encouragement to the imaginations of our youth. Why allow a child to entertain their minds with puzzle books, road games, maps, or even the seatbelt beside them when we just want them to be quiet? Do you think the North Korean government is encouraging imagination? I sincerely doubt it. Children need to be exposed to music with parental advisories that their parents were too lazy to check into. How else will they learn about sex? Children need to be ignored so that they have angst and can grow up to write bad poetry. The world needs more bad poetry.

Listen, you neeeed this car. It's an SUV. It is huuuge. Besides the back of your head, you will be invisible to your children! You will no longer be lame. You can go straight in a left turn lane. Why? Because your car is so incredibly huge that you can basically do whatever you want. You do not need to greet the parents of your child's friend even though the windows are open. Who wants social interaction anyways? What you have here is a self-sustained autonomous island free from the pestering influences of other people.

So, max out your credit cards and incur massive debt. Do whatever it takes to get this car because you do not want your children thinking you're lame. Do it. Do it for the kids.

The Main Differences Between Americans and Canadians

I read somewhere that if you want to tell the difference between an American and a Canadian, all that you have to do is say that there is no difference between Americans and Canadians. The Canadian is the one who objects.

The biggest difference between Americans and Canadians is that Canadians care about the difference between Americans and Canadians.

Americans drink soda and coke. Canadians drink pop.

An American doesn't care if his country is mentioned in the foreign news, he expects it. Canadians voraciously read news stories about Canada appearing in the foreign news.

Americans know that their country is number one, rankings be damned. Canadians are ecstatic if they are mentioned in the top ten.

Americans have their milk in cartons. Canadians have their milk in cartons and in bags.

In a movie, if an American is portrayed as stupid, crass, or obnoxious, it is anti-Americanism. In a movie, if a Canadian is portrayed as stupid, crass, or obnoxious, there is much rejoicing in the streets - for a Canadian has been portrayed in a movie.

Almost all Americans have accents. Canadians honestly believe that they speak in standard American English, with a few colloquial expressions and ehs thrown in.

According to Americans, they won the war of 1812 - they sacked York. According to Canadians, they won the war of 1812 - they burnt down the White House.

Americans think smarties come in rolls and taste like fruity candies. Canadians know better.

Old Americans in Canada are probably draft dodgers. Old Canadians in the States are probably in Florida.

Americans have green paper money. Canadians have paper money in a multitude of colours . . . it's also much crisper.

Americans pronounce the -er in foyer "urrr." Canadians pronounce it correctly.

Americans think Texas is big. Canadians think Saskatchewan is small.

Americans have Captain America. Canadians have Wayne Gretzky.

Americans apologize for stepping on your foot, Canadians apologize for having their foot stepped on.

If something goes wrong in the world, Americans are blamed for doing too little or too much. If something goes wrong in the world, Canadians are probably watching curling.

An American election campaign takes about one million weeks. A Canadian election campaign is a little over a month.

Americans have the ugly side of Niagara Falls while Canadians are stuck with the beautiful side.

Many Americans believe that Barack Obama wishes he weren't Kenyan. Many Canadians believe that Stephen Harper wishes he were American.

Playing for Change - Redemption Song

This is the Title, It Contains Numerous Capitals and Is in a Larger Font.

This here is the attention-grabbing first sentence, which, unfortunately, defines the topic at hand using a common dictionary. This sentence questions that definition. This sentence contains the actual content of this piece. This is a humourous anecdote that will pull you even further in. This is a serious statement that will make you nod your head gravely in agreement.

This is a terse statement.

This is a well-worded but ultimately meaningless sentence that may sound impressive but really isn't saying anything. This is a sentence that basically repeats what was said earlier but more emphatically. This sentence provides a poorly constructed metaphor that ultimately fails to provide any parallel to the topic at hand. This sentence contains a stronger metaphor that confuses you because it is completely different than the previous metaphor.

This sentence is filled with righteous indignation. This sentence is extremely long, containing numerous commas, unnecessary clutter, and a mildly veiled insult to those of an opposing view. This sentence does not belong here, it should be in the first paragraph. This sentence has very little to do with the topic but does show the author's knowledge of a completely unrelated field.

This sentence concludes the essay.

Things I Did Not Know Contained in an 1835 Grammar Book for Children

Untrustworthy Bloggers

I was watching the news the other day. A group of scientists were discussing how, according to some kind of poll, scientists were the most trusted profession. They, of course, were thrilled about this, in the sort of roundabout analytical way that scientists are thrilled.

“How about this poll that says you're awesome?” – interviewer.

“On the one hand, bla bla blah superb scientific sociological mumbo-jumbo. While on the other hand, blah blah blah reservations grain of salt et cetera.” – scientist.

There were other professions listed, including teachers (near the top), politicians (near the bottom), and journalists (I forget). At the very bottom of the list were bloggers. Why aren’t bloggers trusted? Here are a few reasons:

~ Not all bloggers are boerishbwoy. In fact, there is only one boerishbwoy blog.

~ Bloggers often rely on memory instead of checking their facts. For example, they will just say that they were watching the news and saw a poll without referencing the news station or the poll. Both of these items would be simple enough for the blogger to check through the google, but some bloggers are just too lazy to do this.

~ Who has time to answer polls? Answer: old people. When you ask the average octogenarian what he or she thinks of bloggers here’s what he or she is thinking – “dagnabbit, that’s one of them internets doohickies, innit? The internets did away with them respectable professions of encyclopaedia salesman and vaudeville performer. Isn’t that swine flu spread on the internets? Internets is chalk-full of them trollops and isn’t Osama bin Laden hiding in the internets somewhere? Clarence told me the internets told him he had leprosy when it was just the flu. Dern internets. Then there was that whole Nigerian investment thing that didn’t work out so well for him, that was the internets too.”

So, of course, their answer will be that they do not trust bloggers.

~ Bloggers effectively alienate whole swathes of society by, for example, making fun of the aged.

~ The poll did not include faith healers, snake oil salesmen, infomercial spokesmen, police officers in movies about Boston, or reality television stars. If it had, bloggers would have had at least one profession below it.

~ Some bloggers blog, stop blogging, blog again, promise to continue blogging, stop blogging, promise to continue blogging, continue not blogging, start blogging again and then stop blogging. Very unreliable.

~ Some bloggers blog about fingernail fungi. Why would they do this?

~ Some bloggers will just add an item to a list to fill space.

~ Seventy-five per cent of blogs do not last more than two years.

~ Bloggers make up eighty four per cent of their statistics.

"Do not drill here," said the electrical cables.

People I see (or have seen) on the transit system while going to work:

- The man with the bouffant. Alright, I’m actually not sure if this person is a man or if the hairstyle qualifies as a bouffant. In fact, this person might actually be “the woman with the beehive.” However, there is a person who I believe is a man that I occasionally see with a very tall sweeping hairstyle that must require a lot of gel.

- The Chinese ladies who like coffee. It’s really not significant that they’re Chinese or that they’re ladies or even that they like coffee. The significant factor is that they look like identical twins and they seem to work at the same company. They might be Korean or Japanese. I’m racist.

- The massively obese woman with fat rolls that are strange. Why do her fat rolls grow in the places they do? She has a fat person upper body, an obese person stomach, and a massively obese person legs. She’s like a giant corpulent pear that can walk. I’m sure she’s a nice lady though. This wasn’t mean-spirited because I said something nice about her.

- The guy who looks Dutch. He’s a guy, and he looks Dutch. He’s the Dutch-looking guy.

- The incredibly baggy jogging pants guy. His jogging pants are rancid-looking. They’re very baggy. He wears jeans underneath, thankfully. He’s quite skinny, but he sits with his legs splayed out on the crowded bus because maybe he wants to show just how baggy his dirty jogging pants are.

- The first-in-line bearded guy. He is always first in line at the one of the busy stops. He has a beard. He once ordered everyone to move to the back of the bus on a very busy day when he was the fifth person on. Unfortunately, this was impossible and he had to wait for the next bus. Ever since, he’s always the first - even when there are pregnant ladies.

- Wael. He’s my friend. I saw him once on the bus and that counts.

- Steven Spielberg. I saw a guy who looked like him, for real. He took the 148 Elmvale.

- Old wrinkly bearded man with the kindly face. I sat next to him on the bus once and he handed me a flyer for a free speech at the Ottawa Public Library about toxins in pesticides. If he had not had such a kindly face, I might not have expressed vague interest. My vague interest encouraged him to ask if I liked organ music. I answered in the affirmative. A free concert at Ottawa’s Notre Dame Cathedral flyer was immediately handed to me. I mentioned that I was busy that Friday. “No problem,” he said, “how about this talk about municipal public policy?” I asked the date of the talk, mumbled something about keeping it in mind, and stood up for my stop.
“Could I have the flyers back please? I didn’t make copies.”
I handed them back to him and he carefully placed them in the plastic covers in his leather hippie-bag. Saving paper – that’s cool.

- Young gangster Spike Lee. He’s like Spike Lee, except he’s younger and he’s gangster and he doesn’t have a speech impediment. He cussed out the driver for missing his stop – admittedly the next stop was pretty far.

- The “Oh my gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd” girl. I don’t remember what she looks like. Let’s just say that she was blonde with pink hoop earrings, aviator glasses, and gladiator sandals. She was talking on her cellphone and she said “oh my gaaawwwwd” a lot. Like, a lot, like, really.

- The lady with the angry stare. I only saw her once, but I feel like I may have murdered her cat. She was not happy with me.

- The white Rasta. Notable for being white and being a Rasta, he had a very cute kid. Maybe he was just a hippie. *Sidenote* Laurianne and her friend met a white Rasta the other day – he greeted them with a fist bump and the words “Selassie I.”

- The incredibly tall dreadlocked vegan vampire. He must be six foot eight. He lives/lived in my apartment building. He looks like he may lack some protein, vitamins, essential minerals, and sunlight. How do you get so tall when you only drink soy-milk?

- The little person who is not advancing the cause of little people in the way he presents himself. You’re supposed to call them little people now right? Well, this guy looks exactly the way dwarves are portrayed in fantasy with the big bushy beard, the prominent facial features, big boots, and the axe slung over his shoulder. He doesn’t actually have an axe, but everything else is true. He looks like a stand-in for Gimli in “the Lord of the Rings.” Every time I see him my brain goes “dwarf, dwarf, dwarf, dwarf, dwarf, dwarf.” I can’t help it, he’s a dwarf. Sorry to little people everywhere.

- People with stupid hats. I realize this is Canada and everybody looks a little stupid in the winter time all bundled up against the cold. However, these people are wearing toques that are cartoon animals and they are adults. They’re adults, not children. They have cartoon hats that look stupid. I want one.

- Justin Bieber. I see him everywhere. It’s not a big deal.

- Fedex Delivery People. Why do they take the bus, don’t they have brown vans to drive in? I saw one of them getting a ticket from the transit authority or whatever they’re called. She was upset.

- The guy with the handlebar moustache. I mentioned him before. It was weird. I don’t think I mentioned his boots, which were white and went up to his knees.

- The guy with incredibly large circle-things in his earlobes. WHY DO YOU WANT THAT FOR YOUR FACE? Seriously, your ears must be depressed from being stretched like that. They probably cry themselves to sleep every night. You could honestly suffocate on your earlobes. Your earlobes should not touch your shoulders. A friend once told me that my attached earlobes were an abnormal mutation. I am self-conscious of my ears now. However, compared to your ears, my ears are a thoroughbred racehorse (yours would be more like a crippled mule with a saggy belly). You will never be able to run through a forest if you’re being chased by a psycho because your ear lobes will get caught on the tree branches. You really didn’t think this through did you?

- Mother whose children were really bratty one day and the next day were perfect angels. I know she laid down the law with them when she got home. She was all like “You go ahead and try to lick the stop button tomorrow. Ooooh, you’ll think that this punishment was heaven compared to the fire that will reign down upon your bottom if you even think of putting the sole of your shoe on your sister’s cheek again.” Yeah, awesome sauce.

"The world is more like it is now than it ever has before."
- Dwight Eisenhower.

Romain Virgo - Who Feels It Knows It